Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Static VLANs

BCMSN exam success and earning your CCNPSW1(config-if)#switchport mode access
certification requires you to add to your knowledge ofSW1(config-if)#switchport access vlan 12
VLAN configuration. When you studied for your CCNAOne of the many things I love about Cisco switches
exam, you learned how to place ports into a VLANand routers is that if you have forgotten to do
and what the purpose of VLANs was, but you maysomething, the Cisco device is generally going to
not be aware that there are two types of VLANremind you or in this case actually do it for you. I
membership. To pass the BCMSN exam, you mustplaced port 0/1 into a VLAN that did not yet exist, so
know the details of both types.the switch created it for me!
In this tutorial, we'll take a look at the VLAN type youThere are two commands needed to place a port into
are most familiar with, the "static VLAN". As you know,a VLAN. By default, these ports are running in dynamic
VLANs are a great way to create smaller broadcastdesirable trunking mode, meaning that the port is
domains in your network. Host devices connected to aactively attempting to form a trunk with a remote
port belonging to one VLAN will receive broadcastsswitch in order to send traffic between the two
and multicasts only if they were originated by anotherswitches. The problem is that a trunk port belongs to
host in that same VLAN. The drawback is that withoutall VLANs by default, and we want to put this port into
the help of a Layer 3 switch or a router, inter-VLANa single VLAN only. To do so, we run the switchport
communication cannot occur.mode access command to make the port an access
The actual configuration of a static VLAN is simpleport, and access ports belong to one and only one
enough. In this example, by placing switch ports 0/1 andVLAN. After doing that, we placed the port into VLAN
0/2 into VLAN 12, the only broadcasts and multicasts12 with the switchport access vlan 12 command.
hosts connected to those ports will receive are theRunning the switchport mode access command
ones transmitted by ports in VLAN 12.effectively turns trunking off on that port.
SW1(config)#int fast 0/1The hosts are unaware of VLANs; they simply
SW1(config-if)#switchport mode accessassume the VLAN membership of the port they're
SW1(config-if)#switchport access vlan 12connected to. But that's not quite the case with
% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 12dynamic VLANs, which we'll examine in the next part
SW1(config-if)#int fast 0/2of this BCMSN tutorial.